Our History

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Giving What We Can is the brainchild of Toby Ord, a philosopher at Balliol College, Oxford. Inspired by the ideas of ethicists such as Peter Singer, Toby decided in 2009 to commit a large proportion of his income to effectivecharities.

Our Origins

Discovering that many of his friends and colleagues were interested in making a similar pledge, Toby worked with fellow Oxford philosopher Will MacAskill to create an international organisation of people who would donate a significant proportion of their incomes to cost-effectivecharities.

Giving What We Can launched in November 2009, attracting significant media attention. Within a year, 64 people had joined the society, their pledged donations amounting to $21 million. Initially run on a volunteer basis, Giving What We Can took on full-time staff in the summer of2012.

A Growing Movement

We now have 3,839 members, who have pledged to donate over $1.5 billion over the course of their careers. So far, our members have donated more than $25,309,348 tocharity.

Current Structure

In July 2016, Giving What We Can was incorporated more fully into its parent organisation, the Centre for Effective Altruism. It is now run by the Centre for Effective Altruism's staff.

Our Network

Giving What We Can was one of the first in a growing network of like-minded organisations focused on effective altruism, the art of thinking critically about how to do the most good. You can learn more about the ideas behind effective altruism here.